"Several paths lead towards the interior, but the village has no (friendly) relations with the aborigines. "Behind, and to one side, lay a large stretch of grass-covered swamp, on which a herd of monkeys was playing until we appeared, while numbers of herons, big and little, were perched in the surrounding trees. The morass was composed of a sort of sawdust-like paste, into which one sank up to the knees, yet the feet, when withdrawn, were not in the least soiled. In the jungle we got Nicobar pigeons, and a serpent-eagle that seemed to differ from the variety of Little Nicobar and Kachal (_Spilornis_, sp. nov.). "A path from the beach led to a water-hole, which only required clearing out to afford a plentiful supply; the men set to work at this, and when they had got rid of the water, took from the hole a pailful of mudfish and eels. "Learning in the evening, from people who came on board, that there were Shom Pe[.n] on the Alexandra River and at Kópenhéat, we determined on an expedition in search of them next day." "_March_ 22.--At sunrise we put off in the whaleboat, and now rowing and now sailing, as the wind served, and all the time keeping well out from shore, to clear the rollers that occurred at irregular intervals in most unexpected places, reached Casuarina Bay (about 6 miles) at 8 A.M. "The breakers at the mouth of the Dagmar were too big for us to enter the river without an almost certain wetting, to avoid which we pulled back to the south end of the bay, and first wading ashore with the contents, ran the boat through the surf and quickly beached her. Almost at once we perceived within the jungle a deserted Shom Pe[.n] village of three huts, of a kind similar to those beyond Pulo Kunyi. In the camp were two or three platforms or lounges, roughly shaded by a few palm leaves, and some odds and ends were lying about; a small pig cage, food baskets made from the butt of a palm leaf, and a rude lamp--a shell, in which lay a bit of greasy rag supported on half a coconut. "Several paths converged at the village, and these we followed up until each gradually came to an end--bundles and strips of rattan lying along them, showing plainly their _raison d'être_. "One path, however, led past a second camp. Some of the huts were merely rough platforms built against the trunk of a tree; but others were evidently of the kind we had been told about at Pulo Milo--one platform above the other, respectively 3 and 7 feet above the ground, both partially protected by a number of long palm leaves leaning butt downwards against the structure. Continuing onward beyond this village we reached the Dagmar River, and searched along the bank for further paths without success.